    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book III)]
    [November 26, 2004]
    [Pages 3009-3011]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Exchange With Reporters in Crawford, Texas
    November 26, 2004

        The President. I just had a great Thanksgiving with our daughters and my
    mother and dad and
    my mother-in-law. It's good to be back in Texas.
    I wish the Crawford Pirates all the best in their State playoff football
    game tonight. I know you agree with me.
        I'll take a couple of questions.

    Iraq/Iran

        Q. Thank you, Mr. President. If I could ask you about a couple news
    developments today. Seventeen political parties in Iraq demanded
    postponement of the January 30th elections for at least 6 months. I
    wonder about your reaction to that. And there's a tentative deal on
    Iran's nuclear weapons, but I wonder whether you think Iran should be
    trusted, given their history.
        The President. First of all, I appreciate the nations of Great
    Britain and Germany and France who are working to try to convince Iran
    to honor their international treaty obligations. And the only good deal
    is one that's verifiable. And I look forward to talking to the leaders
    of those countries, if they can get Iran to agree to a deal, to make
    sure that it's verifiable. I know that the Prime Minister of Great
    Britain wants a verifiable deal because I've
    talked to him personally about it.
        In terms of Iraq, the Iraq election commission has scheduled
    elections in January, and I would hope they would go forward in January.

    Ukraine

        Q. Mr. President, what are the consequences if Ukraine does not
    comply with international pressure and demands on the elections? And do
    you think that President Putin overstepped his bounds?
        The President. There's just a lot of allegations of vote fraud that
    placed their election--the validity of their elections in doubt. The
    international community is watching very carefully. People are paying
    very close attention to this, and hopefully it will be resolved in a way
    that brings credit and confidence to the Ukrainian Government.
        Yes.

    White House Press Pool

        Q. Mr. President----
        The President. Identify yourself, please.
        Q. I'm with Bloomberg News. I'm Jay Newton-Small.
        The President. Thank you, welcome.
        Q. Thank you.
        The President. Do you know Scott [Scott Lindlaw, Associated Press]?
    [Laughter]
        Q. Very well.
        Q. We ride in a lot of vans together.
        The President. You might ask him why he didn't shave. But go ahead.
        Pool members. Aw-w-w!

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        The President. Well, I was just curious. [Laughter]
        Q. Don't ask me.
        The President. It looks like it's contagious, as a matter of fact.
        Q. Left the razor at home.
        The President. Please, sorry to interrupt.

    World Trade Organization Sanctions

        Q. Today the World Trade Organization finalized or approved
    sanctions the European Union will have against the United States, $150
    million worth of sanctions for the Byrd amendment. Do you have any
    comments on that?
        The President. Well, we've worked hard to comply with the WTO. I
    think it's important that all nations comply with WTO rulings. I'll work
    with Congress to get into compliance. As you might remember, we worked
    on the FISC/ETI bill because of the WTO ruling. We expect the WTO, as
    well, to treat our trading partners as they treat us. And that's why,
    for example, I filed complaint on the Airbus situation. We believe that
    the subsidies for Airbus are unfair for U.S. companies such as Boeing.
        Yes, Mark [Mark Knoller, CBS Radio], hi.

    Appropriations Legislation

        Q. Hi. Sir, you said you're going to sign the big omnibus
    appropriations bill, but are you bothered by all the examples of
    porkbarrel spending that are in that bill?
        The President. Mark, it's--first, the bill conforms to the budget
    that I worked out with the Congress, and I appreciate that. In other
    words, the size of the bill is a number that we agreed to early on--
    earlier this year. And I appreciate that, because part of making sure we
    cut the deficit in half is to work together on the overall size of our
    spending bills.
        Now, secondly, obviously there's going to be things in these big
    bills that I don't particularly care for, and that's why I've asked
    Congress to give me a line-item veto. And the only way a President can
    affect that which is inside the bill, other than vetoing the entire
    bill, is to be able to pick out parts of a bill and express displeasure
    about it through a line-item veto. I hope the Congress will give me a
    line-item veto.
        Listen, it's great to see everybody.

     Northern Ireland

        Q. Anything on Northern Ireland?
        The President. Well, I talked to--evidently the word's out that I
    made a phone call this morning, and I did so. And I was just trying to
    be a part of the process of getting both Ian Paisley's group--Dr. Paisley's group and Gerry Adams' group to the table to get a deal done.
        Q. To get----
        The President. To get a deal done; in other words, to close the
    agreement that they've been working on for quite a while. Hopefully it
    will help. Of course, the primary movers are Prime Minister Blair and Bertie Ahern of Ireland,
    who have been working very diligently on this. I appreciate their
    efforts, and anything I can do to help keep the process moving forward,
    I'm more than willing to do so.
        Listen, I've got to go eat a burger. Thank you all.

    Note: The exchange began at 12:30 p.m. at the Coffee Station. In his
    remarks, the President referred to Prime Minister Tony Blair of the
    United Kingdom; President Vladimir Putin of Russia; Ian Paisley, leader,
    Democratic Unionist Party; Gerry Adams, leader, Sinn Fein; and Prime
    Minister Bertie Ahern of Ireland. A tape was not available for
    verification of the content of this exchange.

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